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BlackSun

What is a latent right? It certainly doesn't help anyone if it cannot be expressed. The custody of minor children is a good example of how the law trumps a supposed latent human right of free association. And the custody rules are written not just for the parents or children, but also to protect the state from having a bunch of abandoned children to take care of. Also, many rights conflict, (private property vs. public right-of-way or interest, etc.) and it is up to the law to resolve those conflicts.

I'm not saying the outcome is always just, but as soon as people begin to interact, they lose some "rights" which they might have if they lived on a planet by themselves. The very concept of rights can therefore only be defined relative to the rights of others.

Correct. That is because actual rights are only granted by either mutual consent or by governmental authority. The principle that we believe a human being should have inalienable rights exists. But in practice the rights themselves do not, unless defended by force or threat of use of force.

Ned, that's not "proof," it's personal experience. Which is notoriously fallible. We tend to see what we want to see--otherwise known as "confirmation bias." As to your second point, how can one person's words of prayer be a "benefit" and another's be labeled "tyranny?" That doesn't even make sense. In the marketplace of ideas, all words are fair game. I'm taking issue with deceptive claims for the efficacy of prayer. The burden of proof is on the claimant. And it will take much more to shoulder that burden than personal testimonials or wishful thinking.

The incentives are still set up all wrong for renewables. If you want a market based solution, you have to ensure users of fossil energy are paying the full externalized costs. If that were the case, no one would need to be concerned about saving the planet. (Since fossil fuels are vastly more expensive--estimates of up to $900 per ton of Carbon pollution). And it's not the planet we should be concerned about, it's ourselves. By encouraging the headlong rush to deplete natural capital over the past two centuries, we've set ourselves up for an unprecedented resource crisis. This is a recipe for severe economic stagnation and even potential violence.